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I Overwintered My Fish Indoors This Season. How Should I Go About Placing Them Back Into My Pond?

Tamara – Rapid City, SD

Re-introducing your fish to their summer home can be a safe and simple process if you follow these 4 simple steps:

Perform A Pond Cleanout – Clean your rocks, waterfall, filters and pond equipment. If stuck-on debris are slowing you down, use some Pond Logic® Oxy-Lift™ to speed up the process. Be sure to clean out any bottom-dwelling muck and skim out floating debris. Most people drain their ponds for easier access to the entire pond. If you are not up to the task then perform at least a 20% water change.

Test The Water – Use a water test kit to ensure pond water is balanced and safe for your fish. A good test kit will include tests for ammonia, nitrite and pH levels as these directly impact the health of your fish. We always recommend adding Water Conditioner or Stress Reducer PLUS to your pond after water changes to detoxify harmful contaminates in well and city water.

Acclimate Your Fish – Water temperature and composition will be different than their winter housing, so it is important to slowly introduce them to their new home. Bring fish out in a bucket and periodically add a small amount of pond water every 5-10 minutes. This will give your fish time to adjust to the water variations and avoid shock. After 15-20 minutes it will be safe to gently release the fish back into their home.

When you create a new pond, you’re effectively building a new ecosystem from scratch. At the beginning, your pond’s waters might look clean, clear and inviting, but nature’s just getting started. Until the initial nitrogen cycle is complete, there’s still work to be done before fish can safely take up residence.

At its early stages, any new body of water – whether an indoor aquarium or a backyard pond – goes through the nitrogen cycle. This cycle begins when living organisms break down nitrogen through their natural digestive processes. Until that cycle is complete, concentrations of ammonia naturally build up in the water – and too much ammonia is extremely harmful to fish. Fortunately, with the introduction of natural bacteria in products like ourPond Logic® DefensePAC® to your pond, you can speed up the nitrogen cycle, making the pond safe for new fish in four to six weeks or less.

In addition to DefensePAC®, other products like Pond Logic® Stress Reducer PLUS and Pond Logic® Water Conditioner go a long way toward making new pond water inhabitable. Stress Reducer Plus helps fish to restore their natural protective slime coats, making them less vulnerable to illness. Water Conditioner helps to neutralize chlorine and other chemicals in the water that can lead to stress.

But simply adding DefensePAC®, Stress Reducer and Water Conditioner won’t tell you when your water is ready to support piscine life. For that, you’ll want to use our PondCare Master Pond Master Test Kit, which tests water for pH, ammonia, and nitrite. When readings are consistently within healthy ranges – as clearly explained in the Master Test Kit’s documentation – you’re ready to welcome your new fish to their new home.

Pond Talk: Have you recently built a pond and are waiting to add fish?